Billy the Kid

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For other uses, see Billy the Kid (disambiguation).
Henry McCarty
a.k.a. William H. Bonney
a.k.a. Billy the Kid

Billy the Kid. (Reversed ferrotype photo)
Born November 23, 1859(1859-11-23)
New York City, United States
Died July 14, 1881 (aged 21)
Fort Sumner, New Mexico, U.S.
Occupation Outlaw
Parents Natural Father: not known, poss. Patrick Henry McCarty or William Bonney

Stepfather: William Antrim
Mother:Catherine McCarty or Katherine McCarty Bonney

Brother:Joseph Antrim

Henry McCarty (November 23, 1859[1] – July 14, 1881), better known as Billy the Kid, but also known by the aliases Henry Antrim and William H. Bonney, was a famous 19th century American frontier outlaw and gunman who was a participant in the Lincoln County War. According to legend he killed 21 men, one for each year of his life, but more likely he participated in the killing of less than half that number.

McCarty (or Bonney, the name he used at the height of his notoriety) was 5'8"-5'9" (173-175 cm) with blue eyes, smooth cheeks, and prominent front teeth. He was said to be friendly and personable at times,[2] but could also be short-tempered and stubborn. However, it has been debated and even rejected that he had a short temper, though most do agree that he was stubborn at times. These traits along with his cunning and celebrated skill with firearms made him a very dangerous outlaw. He was also well known for wearing a sugarloaf sombrero hat with a wide green decorative band. A relative unknown during his own lifetime, he was catapulted into legend the year after his death when his killer, Sheriff Patrick Garrett, published a wildly sensationalistic biography of him called The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid. Beginning with Garrett's account, Billy the Kid grew into a symbolic figure of the American Old West.

Contents

[edit] Personality traits by first hand accounts

  • Frank Coe, who rode as a Regulator, stated in part, years after Bonney's death; "I never enjoyed better company. He was humorous and told me many amusing stories. He always found a touch of humor in everything, being naturally full of fun and jollity. Though he was serious in emergencies, his humor was often apparent even in such situations. Billy stood with us to the end, brave and reliable, one of the best soldiers we had. He never pushed in his advice or opinions, but he had a wonderful presence of mind. The tighter the place the more he showed his cool nerve and quick brain. He never seemed to care for money, except to buy cartrages with. Cartrages were scarce, and he always used about ten times as many as everyone else. He would practice shooting at anything he saw, from every conceivable angle, on and off his horse".[3]
  • George Coe, cousin to Frank and also a Regulator, stated in part; "Billy was a brave, resourceful and honest boy. He would have been a successful man under other circumstances. The Kid was a thousand times better and braver than any man hunting him, including Pat Garrett".[3]
  • Susan McSween, widow of Alexander McSween, stated in part; "Billy was not a bad man, that is he was not a murderer who killed wantonly. Most of those he killed deserved what they got. Of course I cannot very well defend his stealing horses and cattle, but when you consider that the Murphy Dolan and Riley people forced him into such a lawless life through efforts to secure his arrest and conviction, it is hard to blame the poor boy for what he did".[3]
  • Deluvina Maxwell, friend to Billy the Kid, stated; "Garrett was afraid to go back in the room to make sure of whom he had shot. I went in and was the first to discover that they had killed my little boy. I hated those men and am glad that I lived long enough to see them all dead and buried".[3]
  • Louis Abraham, a friend to Bonney in Silver City, New Mexico, stated; "The story of Billy the Kid killing a blacksmith in Silver City is false. Billy was never in any trouble at all. He was a good boy, maybe a little too mischievous at times. When the boy was placed in jail and escaped, he was not bad, just scared. If he had only waited until they let him out he would have been all right, but he was scared and ran away. He got in with a band of rustlers in Apache Tejo in part of the county where he was made a hardened character".[3]

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Little is known about Bonney's background, but he is thought to have been born on Allen Street on the lower east side of Manhattan Island, New York. His parents were of Irish Catholic descent, but their names, and thus Bonney's surname, are not known for certain. Variations for his parents' names include Catherine McCarty or Katherine McCarty Bonney for his mother and William Bonney or Patrick Henry McCarty for his father (who probably died around the end of the American Civil War). Some genealogists say he was born William Henry Bonney and was son of William Harrison Bonney and wife Katherine Boujean, paternal grandson of Levi Bonney and wife Rhoda Pratt and great-grandson of Obadiah Pratt (Saybrook, Connecticut, September 14, 1742 – Canaan, New York, March 2, 1797) and wife Jemima Tolls (New Haven, Connecticut, August 11, 1754 – Washington, New York, November 24, 1812) (who in turn were the grandparents of Mormon leader Parley P. Pratt, making him and Bonney first cousins once removed.).[4] In 1868, his mother met William Antrim, and after several years of moving around the country with Henry and his half-brother Joseph, the couple married and settled in Silver City, New Mexico, in 1873. Antrim found sporadic work as a bartender and carpenter but soon became more interested in prospecting and gambling for fortune than in his wife and stepsons. Despite this, young McCarty sometimes referred to himself by the surname "Antrim."

Faced with an indigent husband, McCarty's mother took in boarders in order to provide for her sons. She was afflicted with tuberculosis, even though she was seen by her boarders and neighbors as "a jolly Irish lady, full of life and mischief." The following year, on September 16, 1874, she died, and was buried in the Memory Lane Cemetery in Silver City. At age 14, McCarty was taken in by a neighboring family who operated a hotel where he worked to pay for his keep. The manager was impressed by the youth, boasting that he was the only young man who ever worked for him that did not steal anything. His school teachers said that the young orphan was "no more of a problem than any other boy, always quite willing to help with chores around the schoolhouse."

On September 24, 1875, McCarty was arrested for hiding a bundle of stolen clothes for a man playing a prank on a Chinese laundryman. Two days after McCarty was thrown in jail, the teen escaped by worming his way up the jailhouse chimney. From that point on, McCarty was more or less a fugitive. He eventually found work as an itinerant ranch hand and shepherd in southeastern Arizona. In 1877, he became a civilian teamster at Fort Grant Army Post in Arizona with the duty of hauling logs from a timber camp to a sawmill. It has been alleged that the civilian blacksmith at the camp, Frank "Windy" Cahill, took pleasure in bullying young McCarty. On August 17, Cahill attacked McCarty after a verbal exchange and threw him to the ground. Stories that have lingered since state that McCarty retaliated by drawing his gun and shooting Cahill, who died the next day. However, Louis Abraham, who knew Bonney in Silver City and who lived there at that time, years later denied that anyone was killed, though the dispute itself may have occurred.[3]

In any event, once again McCarty was arrested, this time in the Camp's guardhouse awaiting the arrival of the local marshal. Before the marshal could arrive, however, McCarty escaped. It has sometimes been reported that the encounter with Frank Cahill took place in a saloon.

Again on the move, McCarty, who had begun to refer to himself as "Willam H. Bonney", next turned up in the house of Heiskell Jones in Pecos Valley, New Mexico. Apaches had stolen McCarty's horse, which forced him to walk many miles to the nearest settlement, which was the Jones's home. She nursed the young man, who was near death, back to health. The Jones family developed a strong attachment to McCarty and gave him one of their horses.

[edit] Lincoln County War

In the Autumn of 1877, Bonney (McCarty) moved to Lincoln County, New Mexico, and was first hired by Doc Scurlock and Charlie Bowdre to work in their cheese factory. He met through them Frank Coe, George Coe, and Ab Saunders, three cousins who owned their own ranch near to the ranch of Dick Brewer. After a short stint working on the ranch of Henry Hooker, Bonney began working on the Coe/Saunders ranch.

Late in 1877, along with Brewer, Bowdre, Scurlock, the Coe's and Saunders, Bonney was hired as a cattle guard by John Tunstall, an English cattle rancher, banker and merchant, and his partner, Alexander McSween, a prominent lawyer. A conflict, known later as the Lincoln County War, had begun between the established town merchants, Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan and the ranchers. Events turned bloody on February 18, 1878, when Tunstall, unarmed, was caught on an open range while herding cattle and murdered. Tunstall's murder enraged Bonney and the other ranch hands.

They formed their own group called the Regulators, led by ranch hand Richard "Dick" Brewer, and proceeded to hunt down two of the members of the posse that had killed Tunstall. They captured Bill Morton and Frank Baker on March 6 and killed them on March 9 near Agua Negra. While returning to Lincoln they also killed one of their own members, a man named McCloskey, whom they suspected of being a traitor.[5]

On April 1, Regulators Jim French, Frank McNab, John Middleton, Fred Waite, Henry Brown and Bonney ambushed Sheriff William J. Brady[6] and his deputy,[7] George W. Hindman killing them both in the high street of Lincoln itself. Bonney was wounded while trying to retrieve a rifle belonging to him, which Brady had taken in an earlier arrest.[5]

On April 4, in what would become known as the Gunfight of Blazer's Mills, they tracked down and killed an old buffalo hunter known as Buckshot Roberts, whom they suspected of involvement in the Tunstall murder, but not before Roberts shot and killed Dick Brewer, who had been the Regulators' leader up until that point. Four other Regulators were wounded during the gun battle, which took place at Blazer's Mill.[5]

[edit] Killing of Frank McNab and after

After Brewer's death, Frank McNab was elected captain of the Regulators. On April 29, 1878, a posse including the Jessie Evans Gang and the Seven Rivers Warriors, under the direction of Sheriff Peppin, engaged Regulators Frank McNab, Ab Saunders, and Frank Coe in a shootout at the Fritz Ranch. McNab was killed in a hail of gunfire, with Saunders being badly wounded, and Frank Coe captured. On April 30th, 1878, Seven Rivers members Tom Green, Charles Marshall, Jim Patterson and John Galvin were killed in Lincoln, and although the Regulators were blamed, that was never proven, and there were feuds going inside the Seven Rivers Warriors at that time. Frank Coe escaped custody some time after his capture, although it is not clear exactly when, allegedly with the assistance of Deputy Sheriff Wallace Olinger, who also gave him a pistol.

What is known about the morning following McNab's death is that the Regulator "iron clad" took up defensive positions in the town of Lincoln, trading shots with Dolan men as well as U.S. cavalrymen. The only casualty was Dutch Charley Kruling, a Dolan man wounded by a rifle slug fired by George Coe at a distance of 440 yards (400 m). By shooting at government troops, the Regulators gained their animosity and a whole new set of enemies. Around the time of Segovia's death, the Regulator "iron clad" gained a new member, a young Texas cowpoke named Tom O'Folliard, who would become Billy the Kid's best friend and constant sidekick. On May 15th, the Regulators tracked down Seven Rivers gang member Manuel Segovia, who is believed to have shot McNab, with him being gunned down by Billy the Kid and Josefita Chavez.

Under indictment for the Brady killing, Bonney and the other Regulators spent the next several months in hiding and were trapped, along with McSween, in McSween's home in Lincoln on July 15, 1878, by members of "The House" and some of Brady's men. After a five-day siege, McSween's house was set on fire. Bonney and the other Regulators fled, Bonney killing a "House" member named Bob Beckwith in the process and maybe more. McSween was shot down while fleeing the blaze, and his death essentially marked the end of the Lincoln County Cattle War.

[edit] Lew Wallace and amnesty

In the Autumn of 1878, former Union Army General Lew Wallace became Governor of the New Mexico Territory. In order to restore peace to Lincoln County, Wallace proclaimed an amnesty for any man involved in the Lincoln County War who was not already under indictment. Bonney, who had fled to Texas after escaping from McSween's house, was under indictment, but Wallace was intrigued by rumors that the young man was willing to surrender himself and testify against other combatants if amnesty could be extended to him. In March 1879 Wallace and Bonney met in Lincoln County to discuss the possibility of a deal. True to form, Bonney greeted the governor with a revolver in one hand and a Winchester rifle in the other. After taking several days to consider Wallace's offer, Bonney agreed to testify in return for amnesty.

The arrangement called for Bonney to submit to a token arrest and a short stay in jail until the conclusion of his courtroom testimony. Although Bonney's testimony helped to indict John Dolan, the district attorney, one of the powerful "House" faction leaders, disregarded Wallace's order to set Bonney free after testifying. He was returned to jail in June 1879, but slipped out of his handcuffs and fled.

For the next year and a half, Bonney survived by rustling, gambling and killing. In January 1880, during a well-documented altercation, he killed a man named Joe Grant in a Fort Sumner saloon. Grant was boasting that he would kill the "Kid" if he saw him, not realizing the man he was playing poker with was "Billy the Kid." In those days people only loaded their revolvers with five bullets[citation needed], since there were no safeties and a lot of accidents. The "Kid" asked Grant if he could see his ivory handled revolver and, while looking at the weapon, cycled the cylinder so the hammer would fall on the empty chamber. He then let Grant know who he was. When Grant fired, nothing happened, and Bonney then shot him. When asked about the incident later, he remarked, "It was a game for two, and I got there first". Other stories tell the bullet issue differently. One version is that Billy emptied the gun. Another story tells that Grant just bought the six shot from another man, Chisum cowboy Jack Finan, who just some hours before had shot three rounds without reloading. Grant hadn't reloaded the weapon either, as he didn't know about that. The Kid only turned the empty cartridges up to the hammer.

In November 1880, a posse pursued and trapped Bonney's gang inside a ranch house (owned by friend James Greathouse at Anton Chico in the White Oaks area). A posse member named James Carlysle[8] ventured into the house under white flag in an attempt to negotiate the group's surrender, with Greathouse being sent out as a hostage for the posse. At some point in the night it became apparent to Carlysle that the outlaws were stalling, when suddenly a shot was accidentally fired from outside. Carlysle, assuming the posse members had shot Greathouse, decided to run for his life, crashing through a window into the snow outside. As he did so, the posse, mistaking Carlysle for one of the gang, fired and killed him. Realizing what they had done and now demoralized, the posse scattered, allowing Bonney and his gang to slip away. Bonney later wrote to Governor Wallace claiming innocence in the killing of Carlysle and of involvement in cattle rustling in general.

[edit] Pat Garrett

A photograph of Sheriff Pat Garrett
A photograph of Sheriff Pat Garrett

During this time, the Kid also developed a friendship with an ambitious local bartender and former buffalo hunter named Pat Garrett. Running on a pledge to rid the area of rustlers, Garrett was elected as sheriff of Lincoln County in November 1880, and in early December he put together a posse and set out to arrest Bonney, now known almost exclusively as Billy the Kid, and carrying a $500 bounty on his head.

The posse led by Garrett fared much better, and his men closed in quickly. On December 19, Bonney barely escaped the posse's midnight ambush in Fort Sumner, during which one of the gang, Tom O'Folliard, was shot and killed. On December 23, he was tracked to an abandoned stone building located in a remote location called Stinking Springs. While Bonney and his gang were asleep inside, Garrett's posse surrounded the building and waited for sunrise. The next morning, a cattle rustler named Charlie Bowdre stepped outside to feed his horse. Mistaken for Bonney, he was killed by the posse. Soon afterward somebody from within the building reached for the horse's halter rope, but Garrett shot and killed the horse, the body of which then blocked the only exit. As the lawmen began to cook breakfast over an open fire, Garrett and Bonney engaged in a friendly exchange, with Garrett inviting Bonney outside to eat, and Bonney inviting Garrett to "go to hell." Realizing that they had no hope of escape, the besieged and hungry outlaws finally surrendered later that day and were allowed to join in the meal.

[edit] Escape from Lincoln

Courthouse and jail, Lincoln, New Mexico
Courthouse and jail, Lincoln, New Mexico

Bonney was jailed in the town of Mesilla while waiting for his April 1881 trial and spent his time giving newspaper interviews and also peppering Governor Wallace with letters seeking clemency. Wallace, however, refused to intervene. Bonney's trial took one day and resulted in his conviction for the murder of Sheriff Brady: the only conviction ever secured against any of the combatants in the Lincoln County Cattle War. On April 13, he was sentenced by Judge Warren Bristol to hang. The execution was scheduled for May 13, and he was sent to Lincoln to await this date, held under guard by two of Garrett's deputies, James Bell and Robert Ollinger, on the top floor of the town's courthouse. On April 28, while Garrett was out of town, Bonney stunned the territory by killing both of his guards and escaping.

The details of the escape are unclear. Some historians believe that a friend or Regulator sympathizer left a pistol in a nearby privy that Bonney was allowed to use, under escort, each day. Bonney then retrieved this gun and after Bell had led him back to the courthouse, turned it on his guard as the two of them reached the top of a flight of stairs inside. Another theory holds that Bonney slipped his manacles at the top of the stairs, struck Bell[9] over the head with them and then grabbed Bell's own gun and shot him.[5]

However it happened, Bell staggered out into the street and collapsed, mortally wounded. Meanwhile, Bonney scooped up Ollinger's[10] ten-gauge double barrel shotgun and waited at the upstairs window for Ollinger, who had been across the street with some other prisoners, to come to Bell's aid. As Ollinger came running into view, Bonney leveled the shotgun at him, called out "Hello Bob!" and shot him dead. The townsfolk supposedly gave him an hour that he used to remove his leg iron. The hour was granted in thanks for his work as part of "The Regulators." After cutting his leg irons with an axe, the young outlaw borrowed (or stole) a horse and rode leisurely out of town, reportedly singing. The horse was returned two days later.

[edit] Death

Billy the Kid's grave, Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
Billy the Kid's grave, Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

Responding to rumors that Bonney was still lurking in the vicinity of Fort Sumner almost three months after his escape, Sheriff Garrett and two deputies set out on July 14, 1881, to question one of the town's residents, a friend of Bonney's named Pedro Maxwell (son of land baron Lucien Maxwell). Near midnight, as Garrett and Maxwell sat talking in Maxwell's darkened bedroom, Bonney unexpectedly entered the room. There are at least two versions of what happened next.

One version says that as the Kid entered, he could not recognize Garrett in the poor light. Bonney drew his pistol and backed away, asking "¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?" (Spanish for "Who is it? Who is it?"). Recognizing Bonney's voice, Garrett drew his own pistol and fired twice, the first bullet hitting Bonney just above his heart, killing him. In a second version, Bonney entered carrying a knife, evidently headed to a kitchen area. He noticed someone in the darkness, and uttered the words "¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?" at which point he was shot and killed in ambush style.

Although the popularity of the first story persists, and portrays Garrett in a better light, many historians contend that the second version is probably the accurate one.[11][12] A markedly different theory, in which Garrett and his posse set a trap for Bonney, has also been suggested, most recently being investigated in the Discovery Channel documentary "Billy the Kid: Unmasked." The theory contends that Garrett went to the bedroom of Pedro Maxwell's sister, Paulita, and tied up and gagged her in her bed. Paulita was an acquaintance of Billy the Kid, and the two had possibly considered getting married. When Bonney arrived, Garrett was waiting behind Paulita's bed and shot the Kid.

Henry McCarty, alias Henry Antrim, alias William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid, was buried the next day in Fort Sumner's old military cemetery, between his fallen companions Tom O'Folliard and Charlie Bowdre. A single tombstone was later erected over the graves, giving the three outlaws' names and with the word "Pals" also carved into it. The tombstone has been stolen and recovered three times since being placed in the 1940s, and the entire gravesite is now enclosed by a steel cage.[13]

[edit] Notoriety, fact vs reputation

As with many men of the old west dubbed gunfighters, Billy the Kid's reputation exaggerated the actual facts of gunfights in which he was involved. Despite being credited with the killing of 21 men in his lifetime, he is believed to have participated in the killing of only nine men. Five of them died during shootouts in which several of the "Regulators" took part (including the revenge killing of Sheriff Brady, ); Of the other four, two were in self-defense gunfights and the other two were the killings of Deputies Bell and Olinger during the Kid's jail escape.

He reportedly was cool under fire, as were many of the Regulators, but his reputation was often lofted above what actually took place in reality. For instance, when he and the other Regulators killed Sheriff Brady, the Kid has been alleged to have calmly walked over and picked up a rifle previously siezed by Brady. In fact, this never happened, not in that manner. He did take the rifle back, that is certain, but in reality he ran over to where Brady lay, snatching up the rifle while under fire from Deputy Matthews, who wounded both he and Regulator Jim French.

He is often depicted as the "leader" of the Regulators, when in fact he never led them. Dick Brewer led them until his death, Frank McNab followed until he was killed less than a month later, with the final leader being Doc Scurlock. Of the Regulators, several had previously taken part in gunfights and lynchings together. Scurlock, Saunders, the Coe's and Bowdre had stormed the Lincoln jail on July 18th, 1876, removing horse thief Jesus Largo, and hanging him outside of town. Frank Coe and Ab Saunders had, just prior to that, tracked down and shot and killed cattle rustler Nicas Meras, in the Baca Canyon. In later depictions the Regulators, with the exception of Bonney, are often portrayed as inexperienced, even bumbling, and looking to Bonney to lead the way, when in fact this was not the case.

Ironically, it would be the notoriety he received due to the Lincoln County War that ultimately would have a negative effect on his appeals for amnesty. While many of the Regulators were able to simply fade away, or due to them being little known they were able to obtain amnesty, Bonney was not. He negotiated with Wallace for amnesty, and had hoped to eventually receive it. But it never came to pass. His attempts were, also, hindered by his continued outlaw lifestyle following the end of the war, despite him committing no major crimes short of horse theft. By all accounts, the one depiction of Bonney aka Billy the Kid that does seem to stand the test of research, is that he was, by most accounts, extremely well liked. There are numerous accounts recorded by those who knew him that depict him as fun loving and jolly, articulate in both his writing and his speech, and loyal to those he cared for.[14]

[edit] Left-handed or right-handed?

Billy was right-handed. In the 20th century, it was widely assumed that Billy the Kid was left-handed. This belief came from the fact that the only known photograph of Bonney, an undated ferrotype, shows him with a Model 1873 Winchester rifle in his right hand and a gun belt with a holster on his left side, where a left-handed person would typically wear a pistol. The belief became so entrenched that in 1958, a biographical film was made about Billy the Kid called The Left Handed Gun starring Paul Newman. Late in the 20th century, it was discovered that the familiar ferrotype was actually a reverse image. This version shows his Model 1873 Winchester with the loading port on the left side. All Model 1873s had the loading port on the right side, proving the image was reversed, and that he was, in fact, wearing his pistol on his right hip. Even though the image has been proven to be reversed, the idea of a left-handed Billy the Kid continues to widely circulate. Perhaps because many people heard both of these arguments and confused them, many hold the belief that Billy the Kid was ambidextrous. Many Billy the Kid sites describe him as such, and the fact is still widely disputed.[15][16][17][14]

[edit] Imposters?

Legend grew over time that Billy the Kid had somehow cheated death. At least two men claimed to be Bonny, and were successful in convincing at least a few people.

[edit] Brushy Bill

In 1949, a paralegal named William Morrison located a man in West Texas named Ollie P. Roberts, nicknamed Brushy Bill, who claimed to be the actual Billy the Kid, and that he indeed had not been shot and killed by Pat Garrett in 1881. Most historians reject the Brushy Bill claim. There were numerous points that both supported and discounted Roberts claim. Although, as stated, most historians discount his claims, many people continue to proclaim that he, in fact, was Billy the Kid. Without DNA confirmation, it is likely the battle between Roberts supporters and his opponants will continue indefinately.

It should be pointed out that Roberts did not seek out Morrison to make the claim, but rather was located after being identified as being the real Billy the Kid by one Joe Hines, with whom Morrison was involved with to resolve a property dispute in Florida, during which Hines had claimed to be gunman and former Lincoln County War participant Jessie Evans. In fact, Hines proved in court that he in fact was Jessie Evans, sufficient to receive land left by a deceased brother to Jessie Evans. Evans had also pointed Morrison in the direction of former Evans Gang member Jim McDaniels, who as it turned out was still living, and in Texas. However, nothing could ever be proven as far as Roberts went, and during his interviews with officials to discuss varifying he was actually Billy the Kid, and to grant amnesty to him, his requests were denied when he failed to answer certain questions appropriately. Roberts did have numerous bullet wounds, but he also lacked the prominent front teeth that Bonney had. Some things could be explained, others could not. Morrison did obtain numerous witnesses who had actually known Bonney, who varified that they believed Roberts to be Bonney. Roberts also made Morrison aware of a photograph he had taken with Jim Jones, Bob Speaks and John Jones, a tintype photo made while in Dodge City, Kansas following a cattle drive. When Roberts and Morrison visited Bill and Sam Jones, brothers to Jim Jones, they produced the tintype, claiming that Billy the Kid was the one on the far right.[18] However, how and why Pat Garrett would cover up his death was not explained, in addition to other discrepancies. Requests to exhume Brushy Bill's body and the body of Billy the Kid's mother have been repeatedly denied, fought by both supporters of Roberts, and those who oppose his claim, with niether side in support of an exhumation. Despite discrepancies in birth dates and physical appearance, the town of Hico, Texas (Brushy Bill's residence) has capitalized on the Kid's infamy by opening the Billy The Kid Museum.

[edit] John Miller

Another claimant to the title of Billy the Kid was John Miller, whose family claimed him posthumously to be Billy the Kid in 1938. Miller was buried at the state-owned Pioneers' Home Cemetery in Prescott, Arizona. Tom Sullivan, former sheriff of Lincoln County, and Steve Sederwall, former mayor of Capitan, disinterred the bones of John Miller in May 2005.[19] DNA samples from the remains were sent to a lab in Dallas, Texas, to be compared against traces of blood taken from a bench that was believed to be the one Bonney's body was placed on after he was shot to death. The pair had been searching for Bonney's physical remains since 2003, beginning in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and eventually ending up in Arizona. To date, no results of the DNA tests have been made public, although Sederwall has obliquely stated, "What I know is not what's written in history. What I know about this case differs from history."[20] The facts, in any case, are not well-known. According to an affidavit offered by Homer Overton on December 27, 2003, Pat Garrett's widow told him before her death that her husband had never shot Billy the Kid, but that he and the kid had conspired to shoot a drunk in the face who had hair and a build similar to Billy's. It was this body that Pat Garrett passed off as Billy the Kid. Some discrepancy exists here, however, as Overton remembered the year as 1940, when Apollonia Garrett died in 1936.[21] Still, a number of witnesses to the Federal Writers' oral history project in the 1930s doubted that Garrett had actually shot "the Kid".[22] Moreover, Elizabeth Garrett, the only surviving daughter of Pat Garrett and his wife Apollonia Garrett, told interviewer Paul Cain in 1983 that her father never shot Billy the Kid.[23]

[edit] Popular culture

Billy the Kid has been the subject or inspiration for many popular works, including:

[edit] Film

[edit] Games

  • Billy the Kid Returns, a PC game based on the life of Billy the Kid published by Alive Software in 1993
  • The Legend of Billy the Kid, a game published by Ocean Software in 1991 for PC and Amiga.

[edit] Music

  • Bob Dylan's album Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, soundtrack of the 1973 film by Sam Peckinpah
  • Jon Bon Jovi's album "Blaze of Glory", used as part of the soundtrack for Young Guns II, and featured the song "Billy Get Your Gun".
  • Running Wild's song, "Billy the Kid"
  • Charlie Daniels's song, "Billy the Kid"
  • Billy Dean's song, "Billy the Kid"
  • Diablo Royale's song, "Dead at 21"
  • "Me and Billy The Kid", written and recorded by Joe Ely. Also recorded by Marty Stuart and Pat Green.
  • Ricky Fitzpatrick's song, "Ballad of Billy the Kid",[27]
  • Jerry Granelli's album from 2005 "Sand Hills Reunion" featuring words and music about Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett.[28]
  • Billy Joel's song, "The Ballad of Billy the Kid"
  • Chris LeDoux's song, "Billy the Kid"
  • Will Oldham has related his moniker "Bonnie Prince Billy" to Billy the Kid's alias "William Bonney"
  • Tom Pacheco's song "Nobody ever killed Billy the Kid" on his disc "Woodstock Winter"
  • Tom Petty's song, "Billy the Kid"
  • Marty Robbins' song "Billy the Kid" from the album Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs Volume 3
  • German Heavy Metal veterans Running Wild's song, "Billy the Kid"
  • Western performer Dave Stamey's "The Skies of Lincoln County", which features the deceased Bonney as narrator, answering historical distortions put forth by Pat Garrett
  • Two Gallants' song "Las Cruces Jail"
  • Rapper Fabolous has the alter-ego William H. Bonney for his love of being a babyface outlaw who has his way with women
  • Dan Jefferies's song titled "I want to shag Billy the Kid!"
  • Why? references Billy the Kid in "Song of the Sad Assassin"

[edit] Stage

[edit] Television and radio

[edit] Comics

  • Belgian comic book series Lucky Luke has Billy the Kid as an antagonist in several of its issues, portraying him as a juvenile (or juvenile-looking) outlaw of small stature and childish behaviour. Billy frequently cries, forces the saloon to serve milk and robs grocery stores for lollipops.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The actual date is uncertain, see AboutBillytheKid.com
  2. ^ Trailing Billy the Kid, Philip J. Rasch, p. 126
  3. ^ a b c d e f http://www.aboutbillythekid.com/Eulogy.htm
  4. ^ Ancestry of Mitt Romney
  5. ^ a b c d Shadows of the Past, Inc., Looks at Billy the Kid
  6. ^ The Officer Down Memorial Page Remembers... Sheriff William Brady
  7. ^ The Officer Down Memorial Page Remembers... Deputy Sheriff George Hindman
  8. ^ The Officer Down Memorial Page Remembers... Deputy Sheriff James Carlysle
  9. ^ The Officer Down Memorial Page Remembers... Deputy Sheriff James W. Bell
  10. ^ The Officer Down Memorial Page Remembers... Deputy Marshal Robert Olinger
  11. ^ The History Channel - This Day in History
  12. ^ Billy the Kid: Myths and Truths
  13. ^ http://www.ftsumnerchamber.com/tourist.htm
  14. ^ a b http://www.angelfire.com/mi2/billythekid/chronology2.html
  15. ^ http://www.aboutbillythekid.com/fact_vs_myth.htm
  16. ^ http://frontpage.nmia.com/~btkog/brushy2.htm
  17. ^ http://historynut1.tripod.com/id5.html
  18. ^ http://way-out-west.net/brushy.html
  19. ^ Tucson Weekly - A New Billy the Kid?
  20. ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20061024/ai_n16798392
  21. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/13/bill.kid.ap/
  22. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3947244/
  23. ^ http://www.angelfire.com/mi2/billythekid/qandi.html
  24. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242913/
  25. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068487/
  26. ^ http://imdb.com/title/tt0097450/
  27. ^ http://rickyfitzpatrick.com
  28. ^ http://jerrygranelli.com/

[edit] References

  • Jon Tuska's 1983 biography Billy the Kid, A Handbook
  • The Old West: The Gunfighters, Paul Trachtman, Time Life Books, 1974.
  • The Saga of Billy the Kid, Walter Noble Burns.
  • Trailing Billy the Kid, By Philip J Rasch.
  • Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life, by Robert M. Utley, University of Nebraska Press, 1989.
  • DesertUSA: "The Desert's Baddest Boy"
  • The Last Escape of Billy the Kid
  • Michael Wallis, Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride ,ISBN 0393060683, publisher: W. W. Norton, New York, NY, 19 March 2007.
  • Joel Jacobsen, Such men as Billy the Kid: The Lincoln County War Reconsidered. 1997.

[edit] External links

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